Transforming the Journey:
Mentoring Lives Through Magic and Myth

The Journey

To understand mentoring, one must first understand
the journey, for it is in the midst of journeying that the mentor appears. Daloz
suggests that mentoring is best conceived of as a learning journey
in which the mentor and mentee are companions along the way. He says, "Although
journeys differ for each of us . . . they do have direction, they have a common
syntax, and we can mark our progress by the passing signposts. In their form
itself lies their meaning."4
He continues:

The journey tale [as you know
well] begins with an old world, generally simple and uncomplicated, more often
than not home. . . . The middle portion, beginning with departure from home,
is characterized by confusion, adventure, great highs and lows, struggle, [and]
uncertainty. The ways of the old world no longer hold, and the hero's task is
to find a way through this strange middle land, generally in search of something
lying at its heart. . . . At the deepest point, the nadir of the descent, a
transformation occurs, and the traveler moves out of the darkness toward a new
world that often bears an ironic resemblance to the old. It is not the same,
of course; it only looks that way.5

Finally, Daloz reflects:

For each of us, tangled inside
of our own stories, the endings are hidden. Yet most of us spend the better
part of our lives trying to assure ourselves that our tales are already told,
even if not yet lived, and that they have a happy ending. The discovery that
this might not be so can, in itself, lead to profound transformation. But the
appearance of someone who has already taken the journey can bring a sigh of
relief to the best of us. This is where mentors come in6.

Whether wanderer or pilgrim, the traveler encounters the mentor
who in passage makes more probable what appears at first to be impossible.